June 14, 2023 – Page 2

Senate adjourns plenary until July 4

The Senate on Wednesday adjourned plenary until July 4.

This followed the adoption of a motion by Deputy President of the Senate, Sen. Barau Jubril (APC-Kano), at Wednesday’s plenary.

Senate earlier approved a motion informing President Bola Tinubu that a quorum of the 10th Senate had been assembled and that the Presiding Officers had been elected.

It also adopted a motion to write letters of congratulatory messages to the Speaker and Deputy Speaker of House of Representatives on their election.

The letters will also notify them of the election of the President and Deputy President of the Senate.

It also at plenary adopted a motion to write to international parliamentary bodies informing them that a quorum of the 10th Senate had been assembled and that the Senate was ready to receive communication.

The bodies included the African Union (AU), ECOWAS Parliament, Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CWPA), Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), among others.

Source: News Agency of Nigeria

Women Accountants donate books to girls schools in Lagos

The Society of Women Accountants of Nigeria (SWAN) has sustained its equipping school libraries project by donating several academic, professional and literature books to Festac Girls Senior/Junior Secondary Schools in Lagos.

The National Chairperson of SWAN, Mrs Catherine Nwamara, during the donation to the schools in Lagos on Tuesday, said that the society extended the gesture to promote an excellent academic environment for the students.

Nwamara stated that libraries offered good research background for students to learn, think, create, share and grow with no worries on affordability.

“SWAN believes in knowledge, research, exploring, learning and improvement by studying wide and in-depth.

“Without knowledge, as a student and even as a professional, you cannot fulfill your potential. That is why equipping libraries with professional books is one of our mandate,” she said.

According to her, SWAN is optimistic that through its equipping libraries project, it would groom more young girls into committed readers that would be smart enough to delve into the accounting profession and cope excellently.

Nwamara explained that the accounting profession is wide and encompassing, as it was the only profession reliant to all organisations and businesses.

She said: “You must embrace the habit of good reading as students, because quality reading makes you more knowledgeable, smarter and gives you a global knowledge on people, places, culture and events.

“Reading improves your vocabulary, concentration, calculations and makes you excel in your academics.

“As such you must use the school library as often as you can, in order to research better, without having to worry about buying the good books yourself for lack of funds.

“The accounting profession makes one a better citizen, empowers you mentally, socially, academically and financially, but you can only achieve this if you read wide and aim high.’’

According to her, the ICAN-ATS programmes have been designed to accommodate secondary school leavers and prepare them to become chartered accountants, hence, the students should take advantage of the opportunity after their graduation.

The Chairperson, SWAN Equipping Schools Libraries Committee, Mrs Ronke Akeredolu, said that the project which was initiated by Nwamara in 2021 and marking its fourth edition, was designed to furnish secondary school libraries.

Akeredolu said that the aim of the project was to empower and inspire the girl-child, promote and improve reading culture among secondary school students and enlighten students about SWAN and ICAN.

She lauded SWAN executive, members and the ICAN leadership for their contributions toward sustaining the project and thanked the various school authorities for their support.

Responding, the Principal, Festac Girls Senior Secondary School, Mrs Anthonia Akinyemi, commended SWAN for the donation, noting that the gesture showed that the society placed the girl-child in high esteem.

Akinyemi also lauded the society for using the project as a means of giving back to humanity and contributing to the progress of the nation through the girl-child.

“Readers are leaders of tomorrow. I charge you girls to read the books that have been bought for you to become a better person in life.

“As a school, we will also make good use of the books donated and preserve them, as we expect more support from SWAN in other areas,” she said.

SWAN in its 44 years of existence comprises female members of ICAN with a mandate to assist the institute to attend to the soft issues and non-core areas regarding the development of women and children, especially the girl child.

Source: News Agency of Nigeria

FirstBank, SMEDAN seal agreement to develop, promote MSMEs

FirstBank of Nigeria Ltd. on Wednesday signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria(SMEDAN) to develop and promote MSMEs.

Dr Adesola Adeduntan, Chief Executive Officer of FirstBank, at the signing of the agreement, said that the partnership would change not just the bank and SMEDAN, but also the fortune of Nigeria.

According to him, SMEs play critical roles in the growth of a nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) through diversification of the economy, job creation, wealth distribution and social stability.

He said, “this is one of the driving forces behind our SME Connect initiative through which we offer bespoke financing and non-financing solutions to meet the needs of our growing SME community.

“For instance, in 2022, FirstBank disbursed about N455 billion in value, via tailor-made loan products to support SMEs in various industry segments.

“We have also continued to deploy various innovative e-payment products and services to aid SMEs’ trade and collections and in the process, create a seamless experience of doing business.

“I commend the amazing work that SMEDAN is doing with the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises sub sector in Nigeria.

“Your mandate of linking MSMEs to internal and external sources of finance, appropriate technology, and technical skills is one of the biggest motivations that inspired us to embark on this partnership engagement.

“Leveraging our SME Connect initiative, the large community of SMEs managed by SMEDAN, will be exposed to our product and service offerings aimed at growing their businesses and expanding its scope and scalability.”

Adeduntan, represented by the Executive Director, Chief Risk Officer, Mr Olusegun Alebiosu, said the partnership would also enable the bank and SMEDAN to accelerate digitisation and development of the SME subsector toward increasing its contribution and impact to the national economy.

According to him, there are endless opportunities for the teeming community of SMEs.

“The teeming community of SMEs will be exposed to trainings, workshops, mentorship programmes, financial and non-financial interventions needed for upscaling their businesses through the entire value chain.

Responding, Mr Olawale Fasanya, Director-General of SMEDAN, who noted that funding was an issue for small businesses, expressed joy that the bank was ready to partner in their development.

He said, “but unfortunately, the issue of finance is a major issue, especially for those that are just going into business and then the aspiring ones.

“Then when we look at the nature of the nano and micro businesses, you know banks don’t want to touch them, and they are the ones in the majority.

“So, when we have this kind of Memorandum of Understanding where we can work with banks that are ready to, at least, fund the ones that we feel are credible and will be able to pay back, we are usually very happy to enter into this kind of agreement.

“But, we also know that we have to do a lot of work to make sure that if we are recommending anybody, they are people that will be able to prove they are trust worth,” he said.

He said SMEDAN was talking to government to see how to come up with credit guarantee scheme that would help SMEs, who might defaults.

He said the agency was also trying to put them together to cooperatives, to make it easy for those in the same value chain to source their raw materials as a group.

He also promised to provide a common facility for operators in the Garment, Furniture and Packaging sector.

Also, Mr Olawale Fasanya, Director General, Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN), assured Macro Small and Medium Enterprise (MSMEs) operators in the country of commissioning a common facility centres.

Fasanya said that such facility centres would be provided for operators in the garment, furniture and packaging industries to facilitate their operations, both in and outside the country.

Source: News Agency of Nigeria

Reps invite NEMA over 2023 flood prediction

The House of Representatives has invited the Director-General, National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), Mr Mustapha Ahmed over 2023 flood predications in the country.

This followed the adoption of a motion by Rep. Femi Gbajabiamila, during plenary in Abuja on Wednesday.

Presenting the motion, Gbajabiamila, said there was need for NEMA to brief the House on measures taken to prevent flood disaster and manage socio-economic impact on the people in flood prone areas.

The motion is titled; “Need to Commence Active Measures to Mitigate the Probable Devastation of a Severe Flood Season and prepare Palliative Intervention to Prevent the worst Socio-Economic Consequences for Nigerians in the Affected Areas’’.

He said that a large portion of the country was prone to annual flooding which had been recurring in recent years.

According to him, the extent of the devastation of lives and property has been huge.

Gbajabiamila said that the Nigerian Meteorological Agency in January, released the seasonal climate prediction with a forecast of early onset of rain across the country and heavy rains throughout the season.

He said that the prediction of an early rain fall had a come to pass, adding that there was every reason to expect the forecast of a heavy rainy season.

The lawmaker, however, expressed concerned that the 2023 annual flood outlook prepared by the Nigeria Hydrological Services Agency showed that 178 local goernment areas in 32 states and the FCT fell within the highly probable flood risk areas.

He said that Nigeria had yet to recover from the 2022 flood which affected more than four million people, displaced over two million and caused the death of 665.

Gbajabiamila said that the flooding caused damaged to about 355,986 houses and homesteads as well as destroyed an estimated 944,989 hectares of farmland.

“With sufficient preparation and collaboration between the Federal and State Governments, Nigeria can mitigate the loss of lives and the socio-economic hardships caused by the recurring flooding,’’ he said.

The House urged the Federal Government to liaise with the relevant agencies to ensure the relocation of Nigerians from the flood-prone areas.

It also said the federal government should ensure stockpile of sufficient temporary shelter materials, food and nutrition items as well as medicine to support people in flood-prone areas.

The House urged NEMA to encourage communication between the federal and the state governments, to ensure effective collaboration to prevent flooding in the country.

Source: News Agency of Nigeria

NGO assisted 420 indigent pre-trial detainees, empowers 102 female inmates in 5 years

Hope Behind Bars Africa (HBBA), a non-profit organisation, says it has provided legal representation to no fewer than 420 indigent pre-trial detainees in the last five years.

Ms Funke Adeoye, Executive Director of the organisation, disclosed this while briefing newsmen on the activities of the organisation, on Wednesday in Abuja.

She said that the organisation had also empowered no fewer than 102 female inmates with vocational and life skills to help them earn money while in prison.

She added that to reduce prison congestion and activate criminal justice reforms in the country, the organisation had also supported over 7,000 indigent persons with diverse interventions.

According to her, Nigeria’s prison population was 76,982, as at May 30 and the inmates awaiting trial constitute about 69.3 per cent of the prison population, which must be reduced.

Adeoye said that the figure is the highest percentage of awaiting-trial prisoners in Africa, according to the World Prison Brief’s report, which puts the figure at 12.4 per cent for Ghana and 32.9 per cent for South Africa.

The executive-director added that it would continue to advance access to justice using a multi-pronged approach.

“We started out directly representing inmates for free here in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) and expanded to Kano and Edo states.

“Currently, we have a network of lawyers in Kaduna, Niger, Nasarawa, Edo, Kano and FCT. We have represented 420 indigent pre-trial detainees so far.

“About 40 per cent of this number were charged with simple offences, 20 per cent for misdemeanors, and the rest for felonies, capital crimes and fundamental human rights actions.

“About 80 per cent of these cases were taken from inmates during visits to the custodial centres, while 20 per cent were based on referral and at the police stage.

According to her, the results from these cases ranged from convictions, discharges for lack of diligent prosecution, successful no-case submissions, withdrawals of complaints and acquittals.

“In all these results, our main goal is to provide adequate legal representation and to make sure that the rights of indigent pre-trial detainees are not prejudiced.

“Evidently, with the cases we handled, we cut the time that would otherwise be spent awaiting trial by at least 50 per cent and saved taxpayers money that would have been spent on wrongful incarceration,” she said.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the event featured the unveiling of the 5-year Impact Report/Strategic Plan of the NGO.

Source: News Agency of Nigeria

Ethiopia Remains Among Priority Countries for the Netherlands: Dev’t Cooperation and Trade Minister

Netherlands Development Cooperation and Trade Minister, Liesje Schreinemacher, said that Ethiopia remains one of the priority countries for the Netherlands.

Finance State Minister Semereta Sewasew and the Netherlands Development Cooperation and Trade Minister Liesje Schreinemacher visited the Livelihood Improvement for Women and Youth (LIWAY) program today.

The program is supported mainly by the Netherlands government with the view to creating employment opportunities for women and young people in Addis Ababa,

According to Ministry of Finance, Schreinemacher appreciated the recent progress in the country after the peace deal during the visit ,and pointed out that Ethiopia remains one of the Netherlands priority countries.

She further confirmed that her country will continue to support the government's development efforts both at country and multilateral levels.

Source: Ethiopian News Agency

African Countries Should Build Their Own Capacity to Able Address Disasters

African countries should build their own capacity to be able to address disasters, Director of Blue Economy and Sustainable Environment at the African Union, Harsen Nyambe said.

A two-day validation workshop for the Second Africa Bi-Ennial Report on the Implementation of the Programme of Action for the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (2015-2030) in Africa is underway in Addis Ababa.

The workshop aimed to bring together all member states of AU to validate the Second Africa Bi-Ennial Report on disaster reduction.

The workshop is looking at validating bi-Ennial report review report, which we do every two years to assess how member states perform in addressing issues of disasters, he said.

From the report, we expected that members of states will now be able to provide more inputs that can be taken to ministers who will meet in November this year, he stressed.

“What we expected from the member states is more to build their own capacity to be able to address those disasters,” he said, adding but more importantly, we have launched the multi- hazard early warning system for disasters.

He also elaborated that each member state will have its own early warning system, because it is better to be able to warn people before disaster strikes.

“In that way, people can be better prepared and they can avoid casualties,” he added.

He said we are supporting member states in terms of development of policies, but we are also actually training them on how to handle disasters but more importantly, actually for early warning.

“We have got a situation room here in Addis at AU headquarters, and we have been bringing member states, representatives of member states and regional economy communities to be trained on how to operate that because that's one thing that we feel can help a lot in terms of alleviating disasters,” he stated.

The Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030 was adopted at the Third UN World Conference in Sendai, Japan, on March 18, 2015.

The aim of the Sendai Framework is to achieve the sustainable reduction of disaster risks and losses in lives, livelihoods, and health and in the economic among others by 2030.

Source: Ethiopian News Agency

Innovation Africa Digital Summit Kicks Off in Addis

A two-day Innovation Africa Digital Summit which focuses on the transformation of the telecom sector started here in Addis Ababa today.

Speaking on the occasion, International Telecommunication Union Regional Office for Africa Representative Caroline Gaju said the theme digital Africa is a reminder to all of us to combine efforts and work together to build an inclusive and sustainable digital future.

Africa's digital transformation is indeed central to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and it aligns with ITU strategic goals of universal connectivity and sustainable digital transformation, she added.

According to her, Africa has seen an increased demand for digital connectivity and access to digital services in the past few years.

Between 2019 and 2021, internet use in Africa increased by 23 percent and approximately 40 percent of the population was using the internet in 2020.

“Despite the increased demand, access to connectivity, reliable and robust digital infrastructure, are among the major challenges faced to advance digital transformation in Africa. Digital skills that enable citizens to leverage digital technologies remain critical and the active involvement of girls and young women through gender transformative policies and gender mainstreaming in education are powerful means to bridge the digital gender divide and enable digital inclusion.”

The biggest percentage of the population in Africa, approximately 70 percent are still below the age of 30, and as the leaders of tomorrow it's fundamental that youth engagement is prioritized to drive innovation and entrepreneurship, she stated.

In Sub-Saharan Africa, more than 760 million users have registered the use of mobile money services, which is one example of technology as a cross cutting for Digital Inclusion and Social and Economic Development.

Ethiopia's Innovation and Technology Minister, Belete Mola said on his part that the government's decision to liberalize and open up the telecom sector has brought significant changes to the sector, promoting competition, innovation, and investment and creating a strong digital ecosystem that is crucial to the country's digital transformation.

In 2019, the government announced a major reform of the sector, which included the liberalization and opening up of the sector.

He noted that the reform has enabled ethio telecom to spearhead new strategies and the telecom sector is growing rapidly.

Access to mobile reached 68 million, which was around 32 million in 2019, while internet access surpassed 32 million, which was around 17 million 3 years back, the minister stated.

The proliferation of fintechs including digital payments, such as Telebirr, CBE Birr, and other products has also reached out to millions.

“For instance, Ethiopia's digital payment ecosystem has facilitated transfers of over 1.2 trillion Birr in the past nine months, which is a big increase of 169 percent compared to the past fiscal year, which saw 454.01 billion Birr in digital money transfers.”

Belete further noted that one of the most promising areas of innovation is the use of artificial intelligence to analyze and extract insights from data which can be used to improve customer service, develop new products and services, and optimize network operations.

Safaricom Ethiopia Chief External Affairs and Regulatory Officer, Henok Tefera said the role of telecom companies such Safaricom is critical to contribute to the digitalization and development of Africa.

The company strongly believes in the Ethiopian market and success of the Ethiopian people, he stated, adding that Safaricom Ethiopia is heavily investing on the telecom sector in the country to enable the success of the Ethiopian digitalization drive.

“We have invested over 1.6 billion USD so far, to set up our shop and to enable the success of the Ethiopian digitalization drive. In line with our government's 2025 digital transformation vision, we are also implementing a very aggressive infrastructure development plan through 4G connectivity.”

The chief officer pointed out that Safaricom Ethiopia will empower the dynamic and innovative youth in the 120-million-people country to pick the right skills to contribute to the success of the Ethiopian digitalization drive.

Source: Ethiopian News Agency